He nodded. “I never thought you incapable, Alena. I thought I was going to lose you. There is a difference.”

He kissed me a third time, hard, as though he would drink me down. I kissed him back with everything I had in me, fierce emotions flowing hot between us, every desire and pent-up emotion breaking through into our lips and tongues as they tangled with one another. He pushed me back gently, and my knees hit the edge of the bed, and I fell backward, him on top of me. His body was hard and muscled, strong and safe. The fear that I wouldn’t have him in my life whispered at my heels, urged me to make him mine.

“I don’t want to lose you again, Alena. These last few days . . . it felt like a piece of my soul had wandered away from me, taking the best of me with it.” He nuzzled against my neck, kissing and nipping, pulling soft sounds from me. I swallowed hard and gently pushed him back. This was Smithy’s bed. I couldn’t . . . “I can’t. Not here, not now.”

He shook himself and pulled back. “I lose myself when I am with you.”

“The feeling is mutual.” I smiled and then swallowed hard. If I was going to do this, I needed to do it now. The more time I spent in Remo’s arms, the more the rest of the world disappeared.

“Hermes, I’m ready to go,” I said again.

Remo helped me stand as Hermes zipped into the room, wringing his hands. “You’re going to get me killed. Or worse, fired,” he spluttered out.

Ernie ducked through the door. I pointed at Remo. “You two stick together.”

“Wait, I can come with you,” Ernie said, but I was already shaking my head.

“Not this time. I need to do this by myself, or Zeus will never believe I can take Hera on. He needs to see that I’m strong enough all on my own.”

Remo nodded. “Go, and come back to me.” He raised my hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it, his tongue flicking along my skin in a shiver of promise.

Remo had me. He’d always had me, and I couldn’t deny it any more than I could deny myself my next breath of air.

I looked at Hermes, and he held out his hand. “Okay, if we’re really going to do this, then hang on and don’t let go. Got it?”

I tightened my fingers around his. “I’m ready.”

CHAPTER 10

There was a lurching jerk, and the room around me was gone as Hermes and I sped through the window and above Seattle with a single whoosh of his tiny wings. The cold air didn’t bite, but I could feel it course along my skin as Hermes towed me along behind him, like he was trying to get a kite high into the air. “You are going to get me in trouble, Drakaina.”

“We can just say I threatened you, that you were afraid I would hurt you.” I couldn’t help staring down as we skimmed along, above the city and then above the Wall. For a moment I thought maybe I could see Tad at house thirteen, but then we were gone from that section so fast I was probably seeing things.

“Hermes.” I squeezed his hand. “I need you to take me somewhere else first before we go to Zeus.”

“What, did you forget a change of underwear?”

I thought he was teasing at first, and then he glanced down at me, completely serious.

“No! I’m not sleeping with Zeus. But I need to find someone else first.”

He groaned. “Seriously?”

“Please, it could mean saving my mother.”

His wings slowed and with them so did our speed. “Damn it, I’m a sucker for a sob story. But who do you think can help you save your mom?”

“Orpheus?” I said it like a question because I wasn’t entirely sure that the information I was getting from Yaya was right. Or good.

But I had to try, and Orpheus was the only name I’d been given.

Hermes spluttered, and we drifted downward. “Orpheus? What in Hades do you want with that nutcase?”

Nutcase? Yaya hadn’t said anything about him being crazy. I swallowed hard before I answered. “Just . . . can you take me to him?” I was going to trust Yaya, even if Orpheus was crazy. Even if I wasn’t sure I could trust her. I had to believe she would do what she could to help me bring my mom back.

Hermes tread air, his wings barely moving. He didn’t look down. “Why, Alena?”

“Because.” I had nothing else. Because it might be a total waste of time. Because I wanted my mom back now that we had finally started to move beyond the past. Because I wanted to believe my yaya wouldn’t steer me wrong.

Because.

His head drooped. “He’s on the way.” He turned west and zipped along at a good clip once more. In no time we were out over open water and approaching a large island. We skimmed the trees as the rain fell around us, soaking my hair and clothes.

“I really hope you know what you’re doing,” Hermes muttered.

Of course I didn’t, but he didn’t need to know that.

He began to lower us through the spitting clouds, and a midsize lake came into view. I thought I caught a glimpse of a name on a battered wooden sign. “Westwood Lake.”

“He’s there on the dock,” Hermes said, dropping me off in the sand of the beach. I stumbled in the wet footing until my feet were at the edge of the water. The dock was only about fifty feet out and bobbed here and there, the water sloshing around it. On the rickety wooden planks stood a man with long grizzled hair that was twisted up in dreadlocks, though I suspected they weren’t done that way for fashion so much as for lack of care. There was the sound of singing from all around him, but I wasn’t sure if it was just him or not.